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| THE BORN TO LOSERS - FUSILIER AND FIRKIN, CAMDEN 11.10.02 It’s Friday night and the Fusilier and Firkin in Camden is absolutely rammed with punks, misfits and drunks to see one Victor Torpedo, guitarist with Portuguese punksters The Parkinsons, sing his wee arse cakes off. This is one of those secret gigs that nobody kept much of a secret. Tonight Matthew, Victor is going to be the legendary crazy junkie fuck Johnny Thunders, fronting for one night only, The Born To Losers, a Thunders tribute band... “What have I been doing with myself?” Victor asks the crowd. “This is fucking easy,” he screams in his fading Portuguese accent, and he has a point. He’s every bit as good as normal Parkies frontman Afonso Pinto, who’s here tonight falling all over the place, grabbing people by the bollocks and then in the dying minutes of the night, can’t resist being out of the spotlight anymore and flounders forward to join his guitarist on stage. Vic is great at this, bounding around, throwing himself into the crowd, leaping on speakers and beating himself over the head with his microphone, plus he can actually sort of sing. This is kind of like The Parkinsons only the music seems more efficient and fluent, but don’t forget that some of these songs are true classics, like of course “Born To Lose” and “One Track Mind”, and when he’s playing guitar himself, he tends to play two at once while dangling from wires from the roof with his trousers down. Not exactly the best time to come all over Hank Marvin. The Parkinsons still have some way to go before their music is considered top quality, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen, and you know it won’t take a heroin overdose to prove it. Towards the end the whole place erupts and suddenly glass and chairs are flying as well as fists. A bloke in a trilby leaps on stage and takes over vocal duty, while Victor shows the world his meat and two veg. Utter anarchy ensues and we have to admit we love a bit of it. While the whole punk garage scene begins to go stale, it’s refreshing to see The Parkinsons trying something different, and having a laugh along the way. It’s a long way to nowhere, but they’re still some way ahead of the rest of the pack... Jeres. |